Bath salt is street name for a group of powerful, synthetic stimulants.

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THURSDAY, July 26, 2012 (HealthDay
News) — Street drugs called "bath salts"
have a similar effect in the brain as cocaine and carry the same risk for abuse and addiction, a new
study in mice has found.

Bath
salts are synthetic stimulants that have become increasingly popular
among recreational drug users in recent years. (The substances have nothing to
do with the crystals you might sprinkle in a bathtub.)

In the new study of adult mice, University of North Carolina
researchers found evidence that the effects of the bath salt mephedrone on the
brain's reward circuits are comparable to similar doses of cocaine.

The mice were implanted with brain-stimulating electrodes and trained
to run on a wheel in order to give themselves a reward, which was direct
stimulation of the brain pathways involved in reward perception.

The technique, called "intracranial self-stimulation" has
been used in experiments since the 1950s, according to researchers. Prior
intracranial self-stimulation studies have shown that one of the
characteristics of addictive drugs is to make self-stimulation more
pleasurable.

The researchers measured the rodents' wheel spinning efforts before,
during and after they were given various doses of cocaine or mephedrone. Like
cocaine, mephedrone made intracranial self-stimulation more rewarding for the
mice.

The study was released online in advance of publication in an upcoming
print issue of the journal Behavioural Brain
Research.

The findings support the idea that mephedrone and other bath salts may
have a significant addiction risk, said study leader Dr. C.J. Malanga, an
associate professor of neurology, pediatrics and psychology at the University
of North Carolina School of Medicine.

"The effects
of mephedrone on the brain's reward circuits are comparable to
similar doses of cocaine," Malanga said in a university news release.
"As expected our research shows that mephedrone likely has significant
abuse liability."

On July 9, President Barack Obama signed a law banning bath salts
containing mephedrone or another stimulant, MDPV, in the United
States.

Experts caution that while animal studies may be useful, they often
don't reproduce the same results in humans.

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